Pages: 325-326

ON THE ARTICLE "THE FIRST VICTORY OF THE REVOLUTION"*.
EXCERPTS FROM "THE TIMES"1.
Times, Wednesday 1 XI.
Leading article:
"Nothing could characterize more clearly the great and irreversible revolution in Russian (popular) opinion and sentiment than the reception accorded to the tsar's manifesto. It was greeted with open enthusiasm and almost frenzied manifestations of popular joy. But this enthusiasm is no longer what it would have been only a few months ago—it is no longer the enthusiasm of gratitude toward the father of his people for liberation from the oppression of those men who abused the tsar's confidence and kept him in ignorance of what was being done in his name. No, this is the enthusiasm of victory, this is the joy of a desperately struggling people who have demonstrated their strength and by that strength have forced concessions from the rulers against their will—from rulers who had heretofore heeded no appeals and were strangers to any mercy. It is not Russian banners that wave above the crowds displaying this enthusiasm, it is not a hymn in honor of the tsar that they are singing; no—they are carrying red flags, they are singing the 'Marseillaise' and perhaps also 'Eternal Memory' in honor of the fallen fighters for the cause of popular freedom. The enormous procession which yesterday (on Tuesday) flooded the Nevsky Prospect with a stream of people is one of the most serious and fateful warnings directed at the monarch and the bureaucracy.
... The popular instinct has correctly assessed the tsar's concessions, whatever their practical significance may be. The people's great triumph is that the concessions have been wrung out by force, and this triumph remains legitimate even in the event that the practical significance of the concessions should prove negligible. A great step forward has been taken on the path leading to freedom, and the people have now shown that they have fully understood by what means this was achieved. The people have shown that they will be able, whenever the need arises again, to employ once more all the force of their pressure, and moreover with all those advantages which experience provides, which improved organization provides ...
... Unfortunately (?) the reports which our St. Petersburg correspondent communicates to us today leave very little hope that the advice of moderate men will prevail... He informs us that the manifesto has completely failed to achieve its purpose [has fallen absolutely flat] and has only intensified the revolution."
And further in the article it is said that the manifesto was received as a sign of weakness—as indeed it could not have been otherwise—that the manifesto provides only words, whereas now deeds are needed. There is neither amnesty nor any serious change in the composition of the ministry. And the newspaper ridicules Count Witte with his evasion concerning the release from prison of those who are not dangerous to public order.
"Russia is engulfed in flames from one end to the other, and Count Witte—lagging behind by many, many months—speaks of people who might present a danger to public order, as though Russia were still wearing its chains in the apathy of despair!"

1 The leading article in No. 37853 of *The Times* from 1 November, excerpts from which are cited here, appears without a heading and without a signature.